Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. After an apprenticeship with a printer, Twain worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to the newspaper of his older brother, Orion Clemens. He later became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his singular lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia CityTerritorial Enterprise. In 1865, his humorous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", was published, based on a story he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, where he had spent some time as a miner. The short story brought international attention, and was even translated into classic Greek. His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

Mark Twain (film)

Mark Twain is a documentary film on the life of Mark Twain, also known as Samuel Clemens, produced by Ken Burns in 2001 which aired on Public Broadcasting System on January 14 and 15, 2002. Burns attempted to capture both the public and private persona of Mark Twain from his birth to his death. Significant artistic license was taken resulting in many historical inaccuracies and misrepresentations. The film was narrated by Keith David and the voice of Mark Twain was provided by Kevin Conway.

Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, Huck and Tom Among the Indians, Schoolhouse Hill and Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy. While all three uncompleted works were posthumously published, only Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy has a complete plot, as Twain abandoned the other two works after finishing only a few chapters.

The fictional character's name may have been derived from a jolly and flamboyant fireman named Tom Sawyer with whom Twain was acquainted in San Francisco, California, while Twain was employed as a reporter at the San Francisco Call. Twain used to listen to Sawyer tell stories of his youth, "Sam, he would listen to these pranks of mine with great interest and he'd occasionally take 'em down in his notebook. One day he says to me: ‘I am going to put you between the covers of a book some of these days, Tom.’ ‘Go ahead, Sam,’ I said, ‘but don’t disgrace my name.’" Twain himself said the character sprang from three people, later identified as: John B. Briggs (who died in 1907), William Bowen (who died in 1893) and Twain; however Twain later changed his story saying Sawyer was fully formed solely from his imagination, but as Robert Graysmith says, "The great appropriator liked to pretend his characters sprang fully grown from his fertile mind."

Tom Sawyer (song)

Tom Sawyer is a song by Canadian rock band Rush, originally released on their 1981 album Moving Pictures as its opener. The song relies heavily on Geddy Lee's synthesizer playing and Neil Peart's drumming. Lee has referred to the track as the band's "defining piece of music...from the early '80s". It is one of Rush's best-known songs and a staple of both classic rock radio and Rush's live performances, having been played on every concert tour since its release. It peaked at #25 on the UK Singles chart in October 1981, at #44 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and at #8 on the Billboard Top Tracks chart. In 2009 it was named the 19th-greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. "Tom Sawyer" was one of five Rush songs inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on March 28, 2010.

Background and recording

The song was written by Lee, Peart, and guitarist Alex Lifeson in collaboration with lyricist Pye Dubois of the band Max Webster, who also co-wrote the Rush songs "Force Ten," "Between Sun and Moon," and "Test For Echo." According to the US radio show In the Studio with Redbeard (which devoted an entire episode to the making of Moving Pictures), "Tom Sawyer" came about during a summer rehearsal vacation that Rush spent at Ronnie Hawkins' farm outside Toronto. Peart was presented with a poem by Dubois named "Louis the Lawyer" (often incorrectly cited as "Louis the Warrior") that he modified and expanded. Lee and Lifeson then helped set the poem to music. The "growling" synthesizer sound heard in the song came from Lee experimenting with his Oberheim OB-X.

Plot

Tom Sawyer and his half-brother Sid are on their way to school when they see Huckleberry Finn fishing. Tom skips school to join Huck, but changes his mind after he sees Becky Thatcher. He tries to sneak into class, but Sid snitches on him to the teacher. Tom's teacher makes him sit with the girls, which Tom actually likes since he's able to sit next to Becky. He is also sat beside Amy Lawrence, a friend to whom he became "engaged". She still has romantic feelings for him but he is too transfixed by Becky to notice. Tom's pet frog Rebel then disrupts the class, meaning they are given early dismissal.

On the way home from school, during the musical number "Hook, Line and Sinker", Tom tries multiple times to steal a kiss from Becky, but is thwarted each time by her father, Judge Thatcher. The next day, as Tom is about to go fishing with his friends, Aunt Polly makes him paint the house as punishment for what happened at school. Tom, however, gets his friends to paint the house for him instead.

Mark Twain

Many years ago on the Mississippi riverboatsThey had men called gaugersAnd the job of a gauger was to hang offthe side of the boat with one handAnd in the other hand he had a ball of twinewith a hunk a lead on the end of itHe’d wield the lead above his headAnd let it fly into the riverWherever the water marked the twineHe’d call up to the skipper and sayMarking on the twine is four fathoms‘Cause then and there, year after yearIt was getting pretty monotonousUntil in the 18 hundreds a little manCame along and revolutionized theWhole gauging industryInstead of saying marking on the twineHe cut it short and said Mark twainAnd in between each marking he’dFill it in with a little pattern about himselfAnd his every day lifeWell if you’d been livin’ at that timeComing up from a distance on the MississippiIt would have sounded like thisMark Twain four fathoms off the starboard bowI got a gal named Cindy-LouFeeds me gin and bake beans tooMark Twain, Mark TwainThree fathoms off the starboard bowI got a friend his name is Pete,sings dirty songs down on Beel streetMark Twain, Mark Twaintwo fathoms off the starboard bowI’ve been working the river since '92I get a penny a day and bad liquor tooMark Twain I won’t save my moneyTill the day I dieThey gonna bury me all but my good right eyeMark twain, Mark TwainNo fathoms off the starboard bowLook out skipper pull it to the sideYou gonna bust your bow and split your hideOh great God we done run it downSkipper gonna chase me with a big blood hound